Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is calling for a restrictive policy toward migrants and refugees across the European Union.
“We must first and foremost send a clear signal that Europe is closed and no one can come here anymore,” Babis, the founder of the right-wing populist ANO movement, told the Saturday edition of Prague newspaper Pravo.
According to Babis, Europe’s message to refugees should be expressed as “Stay home, and we’ll help you there!”
The message must also be clear-cut, Babis said. “If I said that we will not take in a single illegal migrant, then that’s what will happen.”
The Czech Republic, along with Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia, have fiercely opposed the EU scheme from 2015 to redistribute asylum-seekers across the bloc.
Babis, a businessman and native of Slovakia whose minority government took over in June, became a multi-billionaire in the Czech Republic.
The Czech judiciary and EU fraud authorities are currently investigating him because he is believed to have illegally used EU funds for his companies.
Babis remains popular despite the scandal, not only for his anti-refugee rhetoric but also for successfully creating an image of himself as a fighter of the “corrupt elite”.
Babis: We must first and foremost send a clear signal that Europe is closed and no one can come here anymore.
